Beginners Should Start On A Cheap Instrument... Or Not?! Options

[klasaine]

The problem here is the subjective meaning of word "proper" Proper gear for the style You play most will come with time and experience. It worth having a good instructor/player byu Your side so He could help at the beginning - mostly telling You what's a fault of instrument and what's a fault of Your playing. Having descent instrument can save You (the instructor|) some time wasted for explanations - especially some natural bad sides of stringed instruments. Most often beginners try to pass the fault on the quality of an instrument. If they have a descent one it's easier to make them belive You, it's not a fault of instrument.


There is also one bad side if the instrument is bought by a beginner with no feedback of professional. That's how many of internet myths has started. Example? Quote - "Man I had the LP classic but it sucks. It doesn't sound even close to the Standard that I know from my favourite recordings. I have to sell it and by Standard". Of course...same guy months later sold the guitar and bought Standard. Then he writes " Damn...Standard suck as well...this XY artist has to have some ultra custom, one of a milion piece".

Some of beginners think guitar will sound no matter what and how You play. They create a lot of confusion in the net.

Lately I cought one of my frends replacing stock Schecter pickups for some famous brand pickups. Guess what? Placebo effect - I told him I did replace the pickups (which was not true) but the new sets have no logo when sold "as a set". He believed me. He said...wow! How that guitar sound now!...So I brought him bac kto earth and said---man...those are still stock pickups...we didn't even bought the replacement yet (delivery was delayed)

So...that's a twisted question to give a clear answer. One of my students bought RR5 Jackson guitar....but still plays his 4 times cheaper Schecter Demon because its sound lot better to what he actually want to play....but didn't listen to me when I was saying "It doesn't matter it costs so much. it's not a guitar with the type of tone You're looking for"

This brings up a lot of esoteric points about guitars, the particular players, their abilities and their needs.
There's some stuff on and in various guitars that just aren't going to matter or be relevant to some guitarists.
The nuanced difference between a $300.00 single custom Bareknuckle humbucker and the 'stock' pkup in an LP studio will be undetectable by a beginner and probably even most intermediate guitarists.

*We've all seen that vid where Satriani gets essentially 'his' tone out of a cheap guitar and practice amp in some guys kitchen.

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[Azzaboi]

Beginners should start with...

Fender Stratocaster Squier and a small Peavey amp!!!

It doesn't costs too much, but a lot better than some others. I personally believe a cheap low quality poorly made guitar may end up annoying and putting the beginner off. I hated one of my friends first cheap guitar when 12, as the amp would lose it's volume during playing and the guitar would go out of tune all the time. Spent more time fiddling with it than actually playing. He completely gave up and I borrowed his acoustic to learn on. You should also borrow or get a cheap-as-chips acoustic guitar to abuse first while strengthening fingers and building calluses. However, the first real electric guitar pack should be of a certain quality level! He saw me starting to get good on the acoustic, therefore wanting it back and I therefore got a Fender Stratocaster Squier with gig bag, basic lesson book, and Peavey amp, combo special for around $300NZ ($260 USD) at the Rock Shop store.

Sold the guitar combo later on for $499NZ ($425 USD), making a profit as it went up in price. But yeah, that was just my luck, I had no idea of the high quality, compared to some of the others out there (in which a stick and piece of string could outperform).

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This post has been edited by Azzaboi: Jun 8 2014, 05:55 PM

[Cosmin Lupu]

This brings up a lot of esoteric points about guitars, the particular players, their abilities and their needs.
There's some stuff on and in various guitars that just aren't going to matter or be relevant to some guitarists.
The nuanced difference between a $300.00 single custom Bareknuckle humbucker and the 'stock' pkup in an LP studio will be undetectable by a beginner and probably even most intermediate guitarists.

*We've all seen that vid where Satriani gets essentially 'his' tone out of a cheap guitar and practice amp in some guys kitchen.

GREAT point

I think that an affordable guitar that was set up properly having the beginner needs in mind - ease of playing being the essential one - should be a good starting point.

Properly setting up an instrument is a very important step - just like with a multieffects unit - if you don't tweak the tones to make them sound great (these machines are capabale of delivering great tones) you will be pretty much disappointed by the factory settings. This was the exact thing that I experienced each time when I got both the GT3, 6 and 8 processors I was lucky to have someone near that knew how to get good tones out of them.

The point here is, that even an expensive piece of gear can sound or feel bad if it's not properly set up.

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